Originally Posted by
Lookleft
Before the Cold War ended the Russians were considered to have a very capable military mainly because they had lots of military hardware. Proxy wars in the Middle East where Russian Command and Control tactics were used demonstrated that Communist military doctrine was flawed. This was made more apparent once the Wall came down. A lot of current thinking seems to be elevating the PLA to the same Cold War status as the USSR even though they have a very similar Communist Command and Control system. I agree with this statement:
LL
Yes, the Israelis were the first to dismantle Soviet IADS so convincingly back in 1982. This was followed up by GW1 and GW2, Kosovo and Libya with the West. These air campaigns are from where the Chinese are making the most applications of late.
Any military conflict with China can't be underestimated as their doctrine of systems confrontation makes interesting reading.
"Systems confrontation is waged not only in the traditional physical domains of land, sea, and air, but also in outer space, nonphysical cyberspace, electromagnetic, and even psychological domains."
So I mentioned earlier, the RAAF structured around an "effective" JSF fleet and niche capabilities ( complex EW platforms ) and well trained personnel, would be well noted by China. The brief description of systems confrontation gives an imaginative mind many scenarios whereby the PLA may counter western strength in airpower. Conflict will be combined with other unseen drivers of victory- denying the enemy's democratic population a will to fight is as complete as destroying an airbase. Australia is vulnerable politically and economically to systems confrontation doctrine. China can drive a housing crash, force our currency lower and drive interest rates cripplingly higher- and our political grubs and beneficiaries of sponsored Chinese wealth are easily exposed with cyber coercion.
Interesting times indeed!